This book describes tests performed on model adobe buildings to
evaluate seismic damage mitigation techniques applicable to the
retrofitting of historic and culturally significant adobe structures.
Part of the GCI's Getty Seismic Adobe Project (GSAP), the three-year
program outlined in this volume was designed to develop and test
minimally invasive, inexpensive, and easily implemented methods
of protecting such structures from severe earthquake damage. Small-
and large-scale models were tested on computer-controlled shaking
tables at Stanford University and at the IIZIS Earthquake Engineering
Laboratory in the Republic of Macedonia, respectively. The authors
identify typical failure modes of adobe structures and describe
specific retrofit techniques to help minimize such failures. Extensive
photographic documentation is included.

E. Leroy Tolles is a structural engineer with ELT & Associates
and was principal investigator for GSAP. Edna E. Kimbro is an architectural
conservator and historian specializing in the preservation of Hispanic-era
buildings and material culture. Frederick A. Webster is a civil
engineer who specializes in design, repair, and retrofitting of
historic buildings. William S. Ginell is a senior conservation research
scientist at the Getty Conservation Institute and was project director
of GSAP. Tolles, Webster, and Kimbro are coauthors, with Anthony
Crosby, of Survey of Damage to Historic Adobe Buildings after
the January 1994 Northridge Earthquake.